With great trepidation - the Shady Bank is quite high up - I just look for spaces to put my feet and hope for the best - I only have to do it to get to the climbers at the back - the rest I can just about reach if I stretch - as long as my back's behaving.

My difficulty is getting down from the Shady Bank - I'm sometimes stuck up there until OH comes to rescue me

It is a bit of a problem Supernoodle. We used to have a leylandii hedge and they were cut to ground level so I use the stumps as stepping stones at the back of the border but have to walk on the soil in other places I don't really like doing it as it is heavy clay soil which never seems to dry out. I have been wondering what other people do too.

If your soil is not heavy clay you should be fine occasionally walking on it to weed. As said by others the problems is usually pirouetting around trying to find a clear spot to step on : )

It's best to avoid walking on soil too much if it is wet or clay as said but you cant completely avoid it. If this is the problem maybe have some offices of wood which you put down when you want to and move around. But to be honest I don't think it makes much difference as unless the wood is large enough to spread your weight I.e. Much bigger than your foot it's not doing much anyway. I think it is more important when you are creating seed or planting beds where you don't want to undo your good work by compacting the soil you have soent time digging over.

.... Very carefully!! Tried working off planks in the spring - did more damage with them to emerging plants than my feet & (not inconsiderable) weight would do to the soil. Right now there is so little space between my plants that there's only odd bits of space for my size 5's!

I just accept that I need to push through if I'm going to keep on top of dead heading & weeding but try not to walk around too much. I then fork it all over as I retreat backwards to the lawn.

Unfortunately my soil is clay. Sounds like there's no obvious solution. The bricks don't stop the damage- since they are foot sized - but my thinking was that at least I step in the same place each time. Do you think that's helping or am I kidding myself?